Eternal youth: the dream of humanity. Over the past century, the industrialized world has undergone a health revolution: people grow older today than at any point in the history of the human race. Deadly plagues and diseases have been eradicated, technological progress has given us food to spare and effortless mobility. But new diseases have crept into modern life such as cancer and dementia, which we increasingly seek to combat using science and technology. We are getting older, but we also have to fear serious illness in our old age. Could it be possible to become old in years while simultaneously maintaining the health of youth? Certain regions around the world seem to have found the secret. Here, a striking number of centenarians roam about. Old people enjoy an agility and alertness belying their years, working and playing with seemingly no effort. What is their secret? Using stylishly modern and highly cinematic images, the series Fountain of Youth transports the viewer to five different regions around the world.

“Come to Hainan and grow as old as we do” the tourism industry on China’s most popular island advertises for a healthy lifestyle. And visitors do, in fact, encounter an above-average number of people of above-average age, especially in the countryside. A well-ordered and modest life and a scant but healthy diet consisting mostly of vegetables, rice and fish is what gives so many here the gift of long life. On the other hand, the tropical island in the South China Sea is booming with enormous growth rates to rival the mainland. Modernity threatens to engulf tradition. An over-3000-year-old culture and the mindset of Ying and Yang, the search for balance in life, hang precariously in the balance. How much excess can be borne by a tradition of health founded on scarcity?

Director: Yousif Al-Chalabi
Writer: Yousif Al-Chalabi
Cinematographer: Yousif Al-Chalabi
Editor: Daniel Paul Bier
Music: Christoph Schauer
Sound: Matthias Kreitschmann
Narrator (German): Erich Räuker
Commissioning editors: Pit Lehmann (MDR), Christian Cools (arte)
Production managers: Brigit Mulders, Bernd Schwarzer (MDR)
Producer: Andrea Ufer
Channel: MDR/arte

– Episode 1 – Guanacaste, Costa Rica
– Episode 2 – Abkhazia, Caucasus
– Episode 3 – Campodimele, Italy
– Episode 4 – Hainan, China
– Episode 5 – Loma Linda, California/USA